Though we will certainly delve deep into the psychology of what your beach actions say about you in the near future — no point in overanalyzing it now, this isn’t a date — you’re likely already familiar with the many different types of ladies-who-beach. However, despite the plethora of personalities, there are still only two types of people in this world: those who read on the beach, and those who don’t.

Those who don’t are only human. They — fine, we — we prefer to sleep, take a walk, get a buzz, and then nap. Maybe play some Kan Jam if we’re feeling crazy.

Those who do (and I’ve observed this with my own eyes) can and will lay on their bellies for hours upon hours while their backs fry, flipping over only once a chapter is complete so that they can turn the page in tandem.

I love a good book. I’d eat books for lunch if they didn’t take like paper. But I cannot, for the life of me, read on the beach. I’ve always chalked it up to sun, noise, heat, sleep, alcohol, sleep, the fact that there are two kinds of people in this world so I have to be one of them, and peripheral distractions.

Yet it never occurred to me that I wasn’t reading the right beach read.

And so, in order to ensure that the coming weekends are spent in a literate and freckly manner, this week’s Writers Club prompt wants you to write a beach read (fiction or non) in ~500 words. A very short story, if you will, because the thing about that other half of the population is this: whether you read a novel or a poem or a paragraph, if you’re by the water then you, my friend, just converted.

Send all prompts to write@manrepeller.com by Thursday, May 28 at 12 PM EST. Bifocals and a bikini, here we come!

Amelia, I’m with you there. I’ve never been a beach reader. The combo of loud people, uncomfortable sand mixing with my sunscreen, and the fear of tan lines on my face from sunglasses I usually just lay and bake instead. But whenever I’m on my stomach, I’m a total casual reader.

I love reading on the beach! Always a paperback and always something you could buy at an airport. No real literature.

nerelle

This tooootally makes sense. I live on an island and the beach is my front yard, so I will literally read for like 10 minutes and either I fall asleep or someone I know walks by and we end up having a conversation instead…